While a range of mathematical models for malaria have been proposed, implemented, analysed and used to support policy decisions over the last 100 years—as reviewed recently [1]}, [2]}—few models have included the parasite dynamics of both P. falciparum and P. vivax [3]}, [4]}, [5]}, [6]}. To our knowledge, only one of these modelling investigations explored interactions between species [6]}. Silal and co-authors developed a deterministic metapopulation model of P. falciparum and P. vivax,and incorporated key interactions between P. falciparum and P. vivax, including “treatment entanglement” (any treatment affecting the other parasite species), “triggering” (pv hypnozoite activation following an episode of pf), and “masking” (where non-pf rdt results are either missed or falsely attributed to be pf). The remaining models [3]}, [4]}, [5]} effectively consider the dynamics of the two species to be completely independent.
